Stones of Venice, Volume 2 — 25 - Chapter 08, The Ducal Palace, part 5
He has developed the idea in more detail, and still more loathsomely, in the twelfth canto of the fifth book.
§ XCIV.
ELEVENTH CAPITAL.
Its decoration is composed of eight birds, arranged as shown in Plate V. of the "Seven Lamps," which, however, was sketched from the Renaissance copy.
These birds are all varied in form and action, but not so as to require special description.
§ XCV.
TWELFTH CAPITAL.
This has been very interesting, but is grievously defaced, four of its figures being entirely broken away, and the character of two others quite undecipherable.
It is fortunate that it has been copied in the thirty-third capital of the Renaissance series, from which we are able to identify the lost figures.
_First side.
_ Misery.
A man with a wan face, seemingly pleading with a child who has its hands crossed on its breast.
There is a buckle at his own breast in the shape of a cloven heart.
Inscribed "MISERIA."
The intention of this figure is not altogether apparent, as it is by no means treated as a vice; the distress seeming real, and like that of a parent in poverty mourning over his child.
Yet it seems placed here as in direct opposition to the virtue of Cheerfulness, which follows next in order; rather, however, I believe, with the intention of illustrating human life, than the character of the vice which, as we have seen, Dante placed in the circle of hell.
The word in that case would, I think, have been "Tristitia," the "unholy Griefe" of Spenser-- "All in sable sorrowfully clad, Downe hanging his dull head with heavy chere: * * * * * A pair of pincers in his hand he had, With which he pinched people to the heart."
He has farther amplified the idea under another figure in the fifth canto of the fourth book: "His name was Care; a blacksmith by his trade, That neither day nor night from working spared;
But to small purpose yron wedges made: Those be unquiet thoughts that carefull minds invade.
Rude was his garment, and to rags all rent, Ne better had he, ne for better cared;
With blistered hands among the cinders brent."
It is to be noticed, however, that in the Renaissance copy this figure is stated to be, not Miseria, but "Misericordia."
The contraction is a very moderate one, Misericordia being in old MS. written always as "Mia."
If this reading be right, the figure is placed here rather as the companion, than the opposite, of Cheerfulness; unless, indeed, it is intended to unite the idea of Mercy and Compassion with that of Sacred Sorrow.
§ XCVI.
_Second side.
_ Cheerfulness.
A woman with long flowing hair, crowned with roses, playing on a tambourine, and with open lips, as singing.
Inscribed " ALACRITAS."
We have already met with this virtue among those especially set by Spenser to attend on Womanhood.
It is inscribed in the Renaissance copy, "ALACHRITAS CHANIT MECUM."
Note the gutturals of the rich and fully developed Venetian dialect now affecting the Latin, which is free from them in the earlier capitals.
§ XCVII.
_Third side.
_ Destroyed; but, from the copy, we find it has been Stultitia, Folly; and it is there represented simply as a man _riding_, a sculpture worth the consideration of the English residents who bring their horses to Venice.
Giotto gives Stultitia a feather, cap, and club.
In early manuscripts he is always eating with one hand, and striking with the other; in later ones he has a cap and bells, or cap crested with a cock's head, whence the word "coxcomb."
§ XCVIII.
_Fourth side.
_ Destroyed, all but a book, which identifies it with the "Celestial Chastity" of the Renaissance copy; there represented as a woman pointing to a book (connecting the convent life with the pursuit of literature?
).
Spenser's Chastity, Britomart, is the most exquisitely wrought of all his characters; but, as before noticed, she is not the Chastity of the convent, but of wedded life.
§ XCIX.
_Fifth side.
_ Only a scroll is left; but, from the copy, we find it has been Honesty or Truth.
Inscribed "HONESTATEM DILIGO."
It is very curious, that among all the Christian systems of the virtues which we have examined, we should find this one in Venice only.
The Truth of Spenser, Una, is, after Chastity, the most exquisite character in the "Faerie Queen."
§ C.
_Sixth side.
_ Falsehood.
An old woman leaning on a crutch; and inscribed in the copy, "FALSITAS IN ME SEMPER EST." The Fidessa of Spenser, the great enemy of Una, or Truth, is far more subtly conceived, probably not without special reference to the Papal deceits.
In her true form she is a loathsome hag, but in her outward aspect, "A goodly lady, clad in scarlot red, Purfled with gold and pearle;...
Her wanton palfrey all was overspred With tinsell trappings, woven like a wave, Whose bridle rung with golden bels and bosses brave."
Dante's Fraud, Geryon, is the finest personification of all, but the description (Inferno, canto XVII.
) is too long to be quoted.
§ CI.
_Seventh side.
_ Injustice.
An armed figure holding a halbert; so also in the copy.
The figure used by Giotto with the particular intention of representing unjust government, is represented at the gate of an embattled castle in a forest, between rocks, while various deeds of violence are committed at his feet.
Spenser's "Adicia" is a furious hag, at last transformed into a tiger.
_Eighth side.
_ A man with a dagger looking sorrowfully at a child, who turns its back to him.
I cannot understand this figure.
It is inscribed in the copy, "ASTINECIA (Abstinentia?
) OPITIMA."
§ CII.
THIRTEENTH CAPITAL.
It has lions' heads all round, coarsely cut.
FOURTEENTH CAPITAL.
It has various animals, each sitting on its haunches.
Three dogs, one a greyhound, one long-haired, one short-haired with bells about its neck; two monkeys, one with fan-shaped hair projecting on each side of its face; a noble boar, with its tusks, hoofs, and bristles sharply cut; and a lion and lioness.
§ CIII.
FIFTEENTH CAPITAL.
The pillar to which it belongs is thicker than the rest, as well as the one over it in the upper arcade.
The sculpture of this capital is also much coarser, and seems to me later than that of the rest; and it has no inscription, which is embarrassing, as its subjects have had much meaning; but I believe Selvatico is right in supposing it to have been intended for a general illustration of Idleness.
_First side.
_ A woman with a distaff; her girdle richly decorated, and fastened by a buckle.
_Second side.
_ A youth in a long mantle, with a rose in his hand.
_Third side.
_ A woman in a turban stroking a puppy which she holds by the haunches.
_Fourth side.
_ A man with a parrot.
_Fifth side.
_ A woman in very rich costume, with braided hair, and dress thrown into minute folds, holding a rosary(?
) in her left hand, her right on her breast.
_Sixth side.
_ A man with a very thoughtful face, laying his hand upon the leaves of the capital.
_Seventh side.
_ A crowned lady, with a rose in her hand.
_Eighth side.
_ A boy with a ball in his left hand, and his right laid on his breast.
§ CIV.
SIXTEENTH CAPITAL.
It is decorated with eight large heads, partly intended to be grotesque,[156] and very coarse and bad, except only that in the sixth side, which is totally different from all the rest, and looks like a portrait.
It is thin, thoughtful, and dignified;
thoroughly fine in every way.
It wears a cap surmounted by two winged lions; and, therefore, I think Selvatico must have inaccurately written the list given in the note, for this head is certainly meant to express the superiority of the Venetian character over that of other nations.
Nothing is more remarkable in all early sculpture, than its appreciation of the signs of dignity of character in the features, and the way in which it can exalt the principal figure in any subject by a few touches.
§ CV.
SEVENTEENTH CAPITAL.
This has been so destroyed by the sea wind, which sweeps at this point of the arcade round the angle of the palace, that its inscriptions are no longer legible, and great part of its figures are gone.
Selvatico states them as follows: Solomon, the wise;
Priscian, the grammarian; Aristotle, the logician; Tully, the orator;
Pythagoras, the philosopher; Archimedes, the mechanic; Orpheus, the musician; Ptolemy, the astronomer.
The fragments actually remaining are the following: _First side.
_ A figure with two books, in a robe richly decorated with circles of roses.
Inscribed "SALOMON (SAP)IENS."
_Second side.
_ A man with one book, poring over it: he has had a long stick or reed in his hand.
Of inscription only the letters "GRAMMATIC" remain.
_Third side.
_ "ARISTOTLE:" so inscribed.
He has a peaked double beard and a flat cap, from under which his long hair falls down his back.
_Fourth side.
_ Destroyed.
_Fifth side.
_ Destroyed, all but a board with three (counters?
) on it.
_Sixth side.
_ A figure with compasses.
Inscribed "GEOMET * *" _Seventh side.
_ Nothing is left but a guitar with its handle wrought into a lion's head.
_Eighth side.
_ Destroyed.
§ CVI.
We have now arrived at the EIGHTEENTH CAPITAL, the most interesting and beautiful of the palace.
It represents the planets, and the sun and moon, in those divisions of the zodiac known to astrologers as their "houses;" and perhaps indicates, by the position in which they are placed, the period of the year at which this great corner-stone was laid.
The inscriptions above have been in quaint Latin rhyme, but are now decipherable only in fragments, and that with the more difficulty because the rusty iron bar that binds the abacus has broken away, in its expansion, nearly all the upper portions of the stone, and with them the signs of contraction, which are of great importance.
I shall give the fragments of them that I could decipher; first as the letters actually stand (putting those of which I am doubtful in brackets, with a note of interrogation), and then as I would read them.
§ CVII.
It should be premised that, in modern astrology, the houses of the planets are thus arranged: The house of the Sun, is Leo.
" Moon, " Cancer.
" of Mars, " Aries and Scorpio.
" Venus, " Taurus and Libra.
" Mercury, " Gemini and Virgo.
" Jupiter, " Sagittarius and Pisces.
" Saturn, " Capricorn.
" Herschel, " Aquarius.
The Herschel planet being of course unknown to the old astrologers, we have only the other six planetary powers, together with the sun; and Aquarius is assigned to Saturn as his house.
I could not find Capricorn at all; but this sign may have been broken away, as the whole capital is grievously defaced.
The eighth side of the capital, which the Herschel planet would now have occupied, bears a sculpture of the Creation of Man: it is the most conspicuous side, the one set diagonally across the angle; or the eighth in our usual mode of reading the capitals, from which I shall not depart.
§ CVIII.
_The first side_, then, or that towards the Sea, has Aquarius, as the house of Saturn, represented as a seated figure beautifully draped, pouring a stream of water out of an amphora over the leaves of the capital.
His inscription is: "ET SATURNE DOMUS (ECLOCERUNT?
) 1^s 7BRE."
§ CIX.
_Second side.
_ Jupiter, in his houses Sagittarius and Pisces, represented throned, with an upper dress disposed in radiating folds about his neck, and hanging down upon his breast, ornamented by small pendent trefoiled studs or bosses.
He wears the drooping bonnet and long gloves; but the folds about the neck, shot forth to express the rays of the star, are the most remarkable characteristic of the figure.
He raises his sceptre in his left hand over Sagittarius, represented as the centaur Chiron; and holds two thunnies in his right.
Something rough, like a third fish, has been broken away below them; the more easily because this part of the group is entirely undercut, and the two fish glitter in the light, relieved on the deep gloom below the leaves.
The inscription is: "INDE JOVI'[157] DONA PISES SIMUL ATQ^s CIRONA."
Or, "Inde Jovis dona Pisces simul atque Chirona."
Domus is, I suppose, to be understood before Jovis: "Then the house of Jupiter gives (or governs?
) the fishes and Chiron."
§ CX.
_Third side.
_ Mars, in his houses Aries and Scorpio.
Represented as a very ugly knight in chain mail, seated sideways on the ram, whose horns are broken away, and having a large scorpion in his left hand, whose tail is broken also, to the infinite injury of the group, for it seems to have curled across to the angle leaf, and formed a bright line of light, like the fish in the hand of Jupiter.
The knight carries a shield, on which fire and water are sculptured, and bears a banner upon his lance, with the word "DEFEROSUM," which puzzled me for some time.
It should be read, I believe, "De ferro sum;" which would be good _Venetian_ Latin for "I am of iron."
§ CXI.
_Fourth side.
_ The Sun, in his house Leo.
Represented under the figure of Apollo, sitting on the Lion, with rays shooting from his head, and the world in his hand.
The inscription: "TU ES DOMU' SOLIS (QUO *?
) SIGNE LEONI."
I believe the first phrase is, "Tunc est Domus solis;" but there is a letter gone after the "quo," and I have no idea what case of signum "signe" stands for.
§ CXII.
_Fifth side.
_ Venus, in her houses Taurus and Libra.
The most beautiful figure of the series.
She sits upon the bull, who is deep in the dewlap, and better cut than most of the animals, holding a mirror in her right hand, and the scales in her left.
Her breast is very nobly and tenderly indicated under the folds of her drapery, which is exquisitely studied in its fall.
What is left of the inscription, runs: "LIBRA CUM TAURO DOMUS * * * PURIOR AUR *."
§ CXIII.
_Sixth side.
_ Mercury, represented as wearing a pendent cap, and holding a book: he is supported by three children in reclining attitudes, representing his houses Gemini and Virgo.
But I cannot understand the inscription, though more than usually legible.
"OCCUPAT ERIGONE STIBONS GEMINUQ' LACONE."
§ CXIV.
_Seventh side.
_ The Moon, in her house Cancer.
This sculpture, which is turned towards the Piazzetta, is the most picturesque of the series.
The moon is represented as a woman in a boat, upon the sea, who raises the crescent in her right hand, and with her left draws a crab out of the waves, up the boat's side.
The moon was, I believe, represented in Egyptian sculptures as in a boat; but I rather think the Venetian was not aware of this, and that he meant to express the peculiar sweetness of the moonlight at Venice, as seen across the lagoons.
Whether this was intended by putting the planet in the boat, may be questionable, but assuredly the idea was meant to be conveyed by the dress of the figure.
For all the draperies of the other figures on this capital, as well as on the rest of the façade, are disposed in severe but full folds, showing little of the forms beneath them; but the moon's drapery _ripples_ down to her feet, so as exactly to suggest the trembling of the moonlight on the waves.
This beautiful idea is highly characteristic of the thoughtfulness of the early sculptors: five hundred men may be now found who could have cut the drapery, as such, far better, for one who would have disposed its folds with this intention.
The inscription is: "LUNE CANCER DOMU T. PBET IORBE SIGNORU."
§ CXV.
_Eighth side.
_ God creating Man.
Represented as a throned figure, with a glory round the head, laying his left hand on the head of a naked youth, and sustaining him with his right hand.
The inscription puzzled me for a long time; but except the lost r and m of "formavit," and a letter quite undefaced, but to me unintelligible, before the word Eva, in the shape of a figure of 7, I have safely ascertained the rest.
"DELIMO DSADA DECO STAFO * * AVIT7EVA."
Or "De limo Dominus Adam, de costa fo(rm) avit Evam;"
From the dust the Lord made Adam, and from the rib Eve.
I imagine the whole of this capital, therefore--the principal one of the old palace,--to have been intended to signify, first, the formation of the planets for the service of man upon the earth; secondly, the entire subjection of the fates and fortune of man to the will of God, as determined from the time when the earth and stars were made, and, in fact, written in the volume of the stars themselves.
Thus interpreted, the doctrines of judicial astrology were not only consistent with, but an aid to, the most spiritual and humble Christianity.
In the workmanship and grouping of its foliage, this capital is, on the whole, the finest I know in Europe.
The sculptor has put his whole strength into it.
I trust that it will appear among the other Venetian casts lately taken for the Crystal Palace; but if not, I have myself cast all its figures, and two of its leaves, and I intend to give drawings of them on a large scale in my folio work.
§ CXVI.
NINETEENTH CAPITAL.
This is, of course, the second counting from the Sea, on the Piazzetta side of the palace, calling that of the Fig-tree angle the first.
It is the most important capital, as a piece of evidence in point of dates, in the whole palace.
Great pains have been taken with it, and in some portion of the accompanying furniture or ornaments of each of its figures a small piece of colored marble has been inlaid, with peculiar significance: for the capital represents the _arts of sculpture and architecture_; and the inlaying of the colored stones (which are far too small to be effective at a distance, and are found in this one capital only of the whole series) is merely an expression of the architect's feeling of the essential importance of this art of inlaying, and of the value of color generally in his own art.
§ CXVII.
_First side.
_ "ST.
SIMPLICIUS": so inscribed.
A figure working with a pointed chisel on a small oblong block of green serpentine, about four inches long by one wide, inlaid in the capital.
The chisel is, of course, in the left hand, but the right is held up open, with the palm outwards.
_Second side.
_ A crowned figure, carving the image of a child on a small statue, with a ground of red marble.
The sculptured figure is highly finished, and is in type of head much like the Ham or Japheth at the Vine angle.
Inscription effaced.
_Third side.
_ An old man, uncrowned, but with curling hair, at work on a small column, with its capital complete, and a little shaft of dark red marble, spotted with paler red.
The capital is precisely of the form of that found in the palace of the Tiepolos and the other thirteenth century work of Venice.
This one figure would be quite enough, without any other evidence whatever, to determine the date of this flank of the Ducal Palace as not later, at all events, than the first half of the fourteenth century.
Its inscription is broken away, all but "DISIPULO."
_Fourth side.
_ A crowned figure; but the object on which it has been working is broken away, and all the inscription except "ST. E(N?
)AS."
_Fifth side.
_ A man with a turban, and a sharp chisel, at work on a kind of panel or niche, the back of which is of red marble.
_Sixth side.
_ A crowned figure, with hammer and chisel, employed _on a little range of windows of the fifth order_, having roses set, instead of orbicular ornaments, between the spandrils, with a rich cornice, and a band of marble inserted above.
This sculpture assures us of the date of the fifth order window, which it shows to have been universal in the early fourteenth century.
There are also five arches in the block on which the sculptor is working, marking the frequency of the number five in the window groups of the time.
_Seventh side.
_ A figure at work on a pilaster, with Lombardic thirteenth century capital (for account of the series of forms in Venetian capitals, see the final Appendix of the next volume), the shaft of dark red spotted marble.
_Eighth side.
_ A figure with a rich open crown, working on a delicate recumbent statue, the head of which is laid on a pillow covered with a rich chequer pattern; the whole supported on a block of dark red marble.
Inscription broken away, all but "ST. SYM.
(Symmachus?
) TV * * ANVS."
There appear, therefore, altogether to have been five saints, two of them popes, if Simplicius is the pope of that name (three in front, two on the fourth and sixth sides), alternating with the three uncrowned workmen in the manual labor of sculpture.
I did not, therefore, insult our present architects in saying above that they "ought to work in the mason's yard with their men."
It would be difficult to find a more interesting expression of the devotional spirit in which all great work was undertaken at this time.
§ CXVIII.
TWENTIETH CAPITAL.
It is adorned with heads of animals, and is the finest of the whole series in the broad massiveness of its effect;
so simply characteristic, indeed, of the grandeur of style in the entire building, that I chose it for the first Plate in my folio work.
In spite of the sternness of its plan, however, it is wrought with great care in surface detail; and the ornamental value of the minute chasing obtained by the delicate plumage of the birds, and the clustered bees on the honeycomb in the bear's mouth, opposed to the strong simplicity of its general form, cannot be too much admired.
There are also more grace, life, and variety in the sprays of foliage on each side of it, and under the heads, than in any other capital of the series, though the earliness of the workmanship is marked by considerable hardness and coldness in the larger heads.
A Northern Gothic workman, better acquainted with bears and wolves than it was possible to become in St. Mark's Place, would have put far more life into these heads, but he could not have composed them more skilfully.
§ CXIX.
_First side.
_ A lion with a stag's haunch in his mouth.
Those readers who have the folio plate, should observe the peculiar way in which the ear is cut into the shape of a ring, jagged or furrowed on the edge; an archaic mode of treatment peculiar, in the Ducal Palace, to the lions' heads of the fourteenth century.
The moment we reach the Renaissance work, the lions' ears are smooth.
Inscribed simply, "LEO."
_Second side.
_ A wolf with a dead bird in his mouth, its body wonderfully true in expression of the passiveness of death.
The feathers are each wrought with a central quill and radiating filaments.
Inscribed "LUPUS."
_Third side.
_ A fox, not at all like one, with a dead cock in his mouth, its comb and pendent neck admirably designed so as to fall across the great angle leaf of the capital, its tail hanging down on the other side, its long straight feathers exquisitely cut.
Inscribed "(VULP?
)IS."
_Fourth side.
_ Entirely broken away.
_Fifth side_.
"APER."
Well tusked, with a head of maize in his mouth; at least I suppose it to be maize, though shaped like a pine-cone.
_Sixth side.
_ "CHANIS."
With a bone, very ill cut; and a bald-headed species of dog, with ugly flap ears.
_Seventh side.
_ "MUSCIPULUS."
With a rat (?
) in his mouth.
_Eighth side.
_ "URSUS."
With a honeycomb, covered with large bees.
§ CXX.
TWENTY-FIRST CAPITAL.
Represents the principal inferior professions.
_First side.
_ An old man, with his brow deeply wrinkled, and very expressive features, beating in a kind of mortar with a hammer.
Inscribed "LAPICIDA SUM."
_Second side.
_ I believe, a goldsmith; he is striking a small flat bowl or patera, on a pointed anvil, with a light hammer.
The inscription is gone.
_Third side.
_ A shoemaker with a shoe in his hand, and an instrument for cutting leather suspended beside him.
Inscription undecipherable.
_Fourth side.
_ Much broken.
A carpenter planing a beam resting on two horizontal logs.
Inscribed "CARPENTARIUS SUM."
_Fifth side.
_ A figure shovelling fruit into a tub; the latter very carefully carved from what appears to have been an excellent piece of cooperage.
Two thin laths cross each other over the top of it.
